[K12OSN] OT: Apple Imac lab

[Rob Owens]

On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 08:49:27AM -0500, Ryan Collins wrote:
> David Hopkins wrote:
>> Now, the teacher has already added that she'll want all the packages
>> on the thin clients on the Macs but ... she doesn't want OpenOffice
>> on the Macs because 'it doesn't work right'.  Instead she wants a
>> different package. And we need to order the Type-to-Learn package for
>> the Macs as well.  So, the 'usage creep' has already started and the
>> lab isn't even ordered. *SIGH ...
>
> She needs to look at OOo 3.0.1, it works fine. If she wants something  
> more "Maccy", look at NeoOffice.
>
> Whoa, I thought this was a multimedia lab. What's Type-to-learn doing in  
> there? Are you running this on the thin-clients?
>
I agree.  In high school my science class had an oven for doing experiments, but you weren't allowed to heat your lunch in it.  The woodshop had a band
saw, but you weren't allowed to use it to slice your sandwich.  These tools were bought for a special purpose, and for general use you were expected to use a
general-purpose tool (a microwave oven and a plastic knife).

> (* I hate taking instructional time out for teaching typing. That's the  
> biggest waste of resources. Get the students on the machine, they'll  
> learn how to type. I've never had a typing class and can type 70wpm. *)
>
>> So far this has been done except that newer staff and adminstrative  
>> staff in particular coming in from the other schools aren't buying  
>> into thin clients quite as much. They acknowledge that the uptime  
>> statistics are phenomenal (less than 4 hours of downtime this year to
>>  this point and part of that was a power failure that took out the  
>> school) but then they say "We can do the same with Windows as well"  
>> which I'll admit can be done with a huge investment of resources.
>
> For those naysayers, you really need to talk about the initial and  
> ongoing costs.
>
> The most resistance I've had is the English dept. at the HS. They're  
> complaining about the lack of a grammar checker, and the Language Tools  
> plugin for OOo doesn't cut it.
>
Rhetorical question:  why is the English Dept. teaching their students to rely on a grammar checker?

-Rob